In Which Traditional Vampires Become Involved
by mmm donut seeds
Summary: Charoum and Shisui do not sparkle in the sunlight. They can't enter holy ground, either, and in order to survive, they must eat humans. What happens when they move to Forks? T for swearing.
1. Why Forks, Again?

**AN: I wasn't originally intending to write this fic, so I've been kinda lazy with it and the chapters are not the same length. At all. Not even close, since I'm just going to call it a new chapter every time there's a page break.**

** Also, in case they don't wind up showing up because it's not convenient for me, The Organization is a group of vampires dedicated to wiping out any vampire that isn't them, and I'm going with the "they don't recognize the Cullens as vampires" theory for the reason why the Cullens have never heard of them. So, without further ado...**

"This is the rainiest place in the continental U.S," Char told Shisui as the bus bumped over the ground. "Contary to that, though, most vampires avoid it like the plague, because of all of The Organization members that come here because they keep thinking that we'll show up in droves to escape the sun. What they don't realize is that it's more work to avoid being caught than it is to simply wait until nightfall."

"Then what are we doing here?" Shisui asked.

"A few months ago there were rumors that for some reason The Organization was pulling out of the area. We're going to see if that's true, and if not, we'll just head to Alaska. They have notoriously long winters."

"Won't The Organization be keeping a lot of people there, then?

"Nope, most vampires prefer something with a little more population density. Come up with an alias, yet?"

"I think I'll be Glenn Close," Shisui said.

"You don't really look like a Glenn..."

"I'm taking a page out of your book," Shisui dead panned.

Charoum smiled. "Oh, I get it. Getting Close. Very nice."

"What about you?"

"I am Lestat Coilnourt."

"Uh-huh," Shisui said, not buying the name as a good one.

"I think I could pull it off," he muttered.


	2. Is He Cute?

"Hey, I heard there were some new people in town," Ben told his friends exitedly.

"Is one of them a girl?" Mike asked hopefully. Jessica nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, and he added, "A hot girl?"

She gave up, though perked back up when Ben shook his head. "It's some emo kid and his guardian."

"Wow, that's two years in a row new people have moved here," Angela said in an awed voice.

"I know, exciting, isn't it?" Mike agreed.

"I wouldn't get so excited, he might turn out to be a male version of Bella Swan," Lauren said in a snooty tone. Despite this, they couldn't help but agree. Bella had seemed awesome, until she had found an in with the Cullens. Now she hardly talked to them anymore.

"I don't think so," Eric said. "We met them at the grocery store the other night, and while he seemed a little..." he rotated his hand to make up for the lack of words, "his guardian seemed cool.

"Is he cute?" Lauren asked. The whole Bella and Edward thing had damaged her reputation, and she needed to reassure her dominance as the hottest girl in the school. Well, second to Rosalie Hale and Alice Cullen, of course. She sent a glare in their direction.

"Yes, Eric, is he cute?" Mike teased.

"You would want to know."

"You wound me," Mike said, putting a hand over his heart.

"Seriously, though," Lauren said. "I want to know."

"Well, he's definitely better looking than Mike here..."

"Isn't pretty much everyone?" Ben added.

"Hey!"


	3. Stop Flattering Yourself

"Nervous?" Char asked as they got settled in. That meant that he set his back pack down on the floor while Shisui searched the house.

"I haven't been to school since the sixth grade, what do you think?"

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that between the home schooling I've given you," he gave Shisui a hurt look when the younger vampire scoffed, "I have!"

"Sure," he replied. "I'm sure that every normal human being gets taught how to kill people without actually killing them or being caught."

"I've also taught you history..."

Shisui couldn't argue with him. Charoum had taught him quite a bit of history over the past few months.

"... and English..."

"I knew how to read before I met you, stop flattering yourself."

"But you know that it's my favorite thing to do!"

Shisui rolled his eyes, though he did appreciate the attempt to make it feel better, mostly because it was working.

"I've also taught you some French... and small towns like this don't normally recquire a lot out of their students anyway. Trust me, you'll look like a genius, and I'll help you with the math."

"Thanks, Char."

"No problem, kid."


	4. First Day

"You must be Glenn, I'm Ms. Cope," the lady at the desk greeted. "Here are your books, and a list of your classes. I'm going to need you to get the signatures of your teachers and bring it back here at the end of the day," she said. "Oh yes, and here's a school map, so you won't get lost. Do you have any questions?"

Shisui picked up the text books. "No, thank you."

"Alright, just remember to stop by the office at the end of the day," she reminded him.

"Right," he said as he opened his umbrella and stepped into the rain. The sight before him was discouraging, there were a lot of people crowded as they tried to get into the building and out of the rain that was borderline hail. He had yet to pick up Char's skill of getting through the crowds as if they weren't there, but he braved the turmulent sea of students anyway, and eventually he made it out unscathed.

Luckily, Shisui knew exactly where he was going thanks to his proficiency with a map, living with Charoum tended to make one learn how to read a map quite quickly. He couldn't count the number of times Char had gotten them lost with all of his fingers and toes. Once he had shaken out his umbrella and managed to put it in his locker, he waded through the crowds of students and into the classroom where he didn't feel so claustrophobic.

There weren't a lot of people in the classroom yet, even though he figured that by the second year of going to the same school you'd be able to know where everything is. Still, it was nice to be somewhere quiet, he had gotten too used to not being around people. He sat at the desk with his fake name and took the opportunity to start flipping through the textbook to figure out how much he knew and how much he would have to learn.

"Hi, you must be the new kid. I'm Mike Newton."

He looked up to see a boy with a round face and blond, spiked hair extending a hand to him, which he shook. "I'm Glenn."

"You don't look very much like a Glenn," Mike noted, though not suspiciously.

"Can't pick your name," he offered with a shrug.

"So, where're you from?" he asked.

"Detroit," he answered.

"Then why are you..?" Mike began to ask, but was interrupted.

"Settle down, class," Mr. Banner said. The chitchat died down reluctantly. "As I'm sure you've all noticed, another student has joined our ranks. Come introduce yourself, Glenn."

Mike smiled at him encouragingly and gave him a thumbs up. Shisui resisted temptation to roll his eyes.

"My name's Glenn, as you all apparently know. I come from Detroit, though I've moved around a lot."

He then sat down back in his seat, trying to ignore the stares he was getting. It made him nervous, was this normal, or had they already pegged him as different? He didn't really think of himself of different, but then again he only really talked to Char, and he was pretty sure that Char was as "different" as it got. Had the eccentric vampire rubbed off on him? Or maybe Char had been wrong about The Organization, and they had already figured him out. His nails dug into his leg as he considered the possibility that these weren't students at all, but Organization members who were just waiting for him to do something out of the ordinary that would reveal him as a vampire...

With a start, he realized that he hadn't caught a word of what Mr. Banner had said. It had most likely had something to something to do with the papers in front of him. He passed one to Mike before skimming it. Some relief came with the knowledge that it was just a description of the course, a syllabus. Nothing terribly important.

The dose of reality also made him realize that it would be ridiculous to fill a school with Organization members, and that they smelled like humans anyway. He was just being paranoid, though he had to wonder if it was really paranoia if there were people out to get him.

"Where have you lived?" Mike whispered as Mr. Banner settled into mostly reading the description out loud with little bits of commentary here and there.

"I think it would be a shorter list if you asked where I haven't lived," Shisui whispered back.

"You mean you've been out of the country?" Intrigue colored his tone vividly.

Was that really so odd? Shisui nodded. "I can safely say that I've been on all seven continents."

"Wow, that's awesome. But, if you've lived in all those places, why boring old Forks?"

"We needed a change of pace. Moving around all over the place gets old after a while. What about you?"

"Oh, I come from California..." that normally sounded a lot more impressive, though he doubted that the new guy would try to become more popular than him. "You been there before?"

Shisui nodded. "Only briefly, though." He didn't add that it was because it had been too tempting to kill some of the more vapid celebrities or wannabes that they had met. It seemed that they had found the chink in Shisui's usually cool demeanor.

"I hope you all are listening to me, because I might have a pop quiz at the end of class if the whispering continues," Mr. Banner said, though he wasn't staring at them. All the same, Mike took the hint and tried to look more interested in his paper.

As the day wore on, Shisui realized that he had at least two of his classes before lunch with Mike, who had invited him to sit at his table. A girl named Angela, who also apparently knew Mike because she was sitting at the same table, had asked him to join him as well. There were two other boys at the table as well as two other girls who he didn't know yet. Mike waved him over rather obnoxiously.

"Glenn, this is Jessica, Lauren, Eric, Ben, and Angela," he introduced.

"We're in the same French class," Angela said. She was sitting next to Ben, who had his arm draped over her shoulder rather protectively.

"Nice to meet you," Eric said, and shook his hand.

"Can I see your schedule?" Jessica asked. Because both Angela and Mike had asked this question earlier he figured it was some kind of highschool ritual and dug it out. The four who hadn't seen it before began pouring over it immediately.

Jessica frowned. "You don't have any of my classes," she informed him.

"You have mine and Ben's math class," Lauren said. "And I see you're have the same science class as Bella," she said darkly.

"Who?" Shisui asked.

Mike punched him lightly in the arm. "Dude, how could you have missed her? She's totally the most beautiful girl in the school," he said dreamily.

Lauren rolled her eyes and jabbed her thumb behind her. "She's over there, sitting with the Cullens." Her tone conveyed enough annoyance with the girl that Shisui wondered for a second what had happened between them.

It was easy enough to tell which girl she was talking about, despite the fact that there were two other girls sitting at the table. She was the one that looked downright plain compared to the others, Shisui guessed. He had to wonder if there was something terribly, terribly wrong with the other two girls for Mike to say that she was the prettiest girl in the school, the blonde looked more like an airbrushed model from a magazine than a high school student.

"Is there something about her that I'm missing?" Shisui asked.

"Thank you!" Lauren exclaimed. "I knew there was a boy in here somewhere that wouldn't fall for the graceless Swan."

"You're only jealous that she's with Cullen and you're not," Mike said rather tactlessly, and got hit for it.

"I am not!"

"Ow..." he said, rubbing his arm. Nobody else said anything on the subject, though it was fairly obvious that they thought differently.

"Screw you guys," Lauren said as she picked up her lunch and stormed off.

"You'll have to excuse Lauren," Angela said. "Normally she's not like that."

Mike opened his mouth to say otherwise, but wisely shut it again. It was probably because of the warning look Angela gave him.

"So, where are you from?" Eric asked to change the subject.

They chatted until the bell rang, and then he and Ben started walking to their next class. He quickly discovered that he had no idea what the teacher was talking about, at all when it came to math. World History was definitely better, because it looked like no prior knowledge was needed to pass the class.

"Glenn!" Mike called to him as he made his way to the gym. Bella was walking with Mike, and she paused when he did. Shisui caught up to them at his own pace.

"Bella, this is Glenn," he introduced. Shisui extended his hand, which Bella shook.

"Nice to meet you," he said.

"You too. Wait a minute, you're in my science class, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"I gotta warn you, Bella's horrible at sports," Mike told him when they split up to get dressed out. "It's cute, but she's really, really bad."

"You must be the new guy," a boy said. He was already dressed in his P.E. uniform. "I'm Patrick."

"Glenn."

"So, you any good at sports?"

"I'm at least decent," Shisui answered. It had been a while since he had played a game of baseball, but he kept himself in good shape and even living dead vampires were stronger than humans.

"You don't look too bad, but I guess we'll see how you really are when we get out there, eh?"

It quickly became apparent that Shisui was at least mildly athletic during warm ups, and then that he was very good at sports when they played an actual game. Not as good, of course, as the Cullens, but they were just about perfect anyway so it didn't really matter.

By the end of the period, he was sporting a bruise thanks to Bella. She had apologized profusely or course, but he still made a mental note to be more careful about keeping out of her way.

"I'm so sorry!" she apologized again. "Do you want to go to the nurse and get some ice?"

"I'm fine," he reassured her. "Really."

"If you're sure..."

Mike punched Shisui in the arm lightly. Unfortunately, it was in the same place that the bruise was forming, but Mike managed not to notice Shisui wince.

"Come on, Bells. He's tougher than that, right Glenn?"

"Yeah." He rubbed the area a little. Mike had punched him harder than he probably thought he had. "I'm going to go get dressed, see you two later."

Char was waiting for him in the parking lot. The vampire was tapping the steering wheel in time to the music emitted from the radio when Shisui got into the car.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked.

Shisui shrugged. "Nobody died," he offered. "Run into anyone from The Organization?"

"Nope! The area is clear, so as long as we're careful, we can stay here for quite a while. That reminds me, I was thinking that we should take a trip to Seattle tonight."

"That's fine," Shisui said. He really didn't want to run the risk of getting hungry in such a condensed group of humans.


	5. Oi! Whitlock!

"Hey, Glenn!" Mike waved at him to get his attention.

"Hey, Mike. What's up?"

"We were thinking about going to the movies, there's one about a zombie attack that's supposed to be really good coming out this weekend. Wanna go?"

"Sure."

"Awesome. Hey, I should go see if Bella wants to go," he said, looking over at her. She was with the red headed Cullen that had been sitting with yesterday.

"She's probably busy," Lauren said. "Besides, she ditched us for Cullen. Do we really want her to come?"

"Hey, she's still our friend," Angela argued. "She's just been busy recently. I'll go ask her."

"Already on it," Mike said, walking over there. Jessica sighed.

"He really needs to get over her," she said.

"Hey, who knows? Maybe Cullen'll turn out to be a jerk and she'll break up with him." Eric leaned against Mike's car. "Or maybe she'll realize that he's not human," he said in a jokingly conspiritual voice.

"Hey, Bella. We're going to a movie this Saturday, and we were wondering if you wanted to go," Mike said hopefully.

"Sorry, Mike..." Bella began.

"No, you should go," Edward said. Bella looked at him with a hurt expression on her face.

"Are you sure?" she asked him, and he nodded.

"You need to spend time with your friends," he said, and walked away. Mike was tempted to wave his hand in front of her face to regain her attention. She was too busy staring at her boyfriend.

"Bella?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure, I'll be there, Mike."

A grin stretched across his face. "Sweet." He gave a thumbs up to his other friends, and then bell rang.

"Who're they?" Charoum asked as Shisui got into the car to go home.

"They're the Cullens, why?"

"That one looks familiar..." he said. "What's the blonde boy's name?"

"I wouldn't know. Can we go home now?"

"Just a minute."

"No, Char, do not..."

It was too late, he was already out of the car. "Oi! Whitlock!"  
>The blond that Char had been talking about turned to face them, as well as the people he was with. Shisui face palmed. "Get in the car and start driving," he muttered.<p>

"Charoum?" he asked. He said something to the people he was with and started walking towards the car. "Dude, what are you doing here?"

Char shrugged. "Nothing in particular. You?"

"Just trying to fit in. I've got a coven now." He waved at his family, who was chatting.

"You replaced me?" Char was using his "fake hurt" voice.

"No, you randomly disappeared one night."

"Ok, ok, maybe it's my fault. Hey, you want to come over and talk?" he asked. "We've got plenty of room."

"Just a second while I let my coven know."

"You know him?" Shisui asked.

"Yeah, we go way back. His name is Jasper, we used to be good friends, and then Quince caught up with me and I had to leave," he explained. "Oh, and don't comment on the fact that he's not actually a vampire."

"Huh?"

Jasper came back before Char had the chance to answer. The two got into the car where Shisui was waiting and Char turned the key.

"So a coven now, huh?" Charoum asked.

Jasper nodded. "They're like a family, you should meet them some time. What about you? I mean, you've got Glenn now, but how'd that happen?"

"Heh, it's a long story..." Charoum hedged.

"I'm sure we have time," Jasper replied. He was curious now, partially because this was Charoum, and partially because he could feel an emotion not unlike anger radiating off of Glenn.

"Long story short, I was working for his uncle at a coffee shop when... an enemy of mine and his apprentice appeared. We argued for a bit, and eventually Glenn came over because he didn't realize what was going on and I had forgotten my umbrella. In the heat of the argument, his apprentice let slip something that he shouldn't have, so the other guy was going to kill him. Well, his uncle, who was apparently waiting nearby, saw the gun and ran him over with the car, so we got away. Then I kidnapped him and turned him."  
>"Wow."<p>

"So now I have an apprentice."

"And my name's not really Glenn. It's Shisui. And _not_ Sushi." He glared at Charoum pointedly.

"Edward thought there was something odd about you..."

"Which one is Edward?"

"The red head," Jasper clarified. "He reads minds."

"What kind of odd?" Shisui opened the door and stepped out of the car. The apartment building they were staying at was right in front of them.

"He said something about paranoid and amusingly dellusional."

Charoum smirked. "You were thinking about The Organization."

"Well everyone was staring at me, and normally that doesn't happen."

Jasper laughed. "That's the way it is, in Forks. It's like a flock of ravens catching sight of something shiny, they're fascinated."

"You must of thought up that metaphor when you moved here," Charoum teased.

"Shut up."

"Then I take it that you don't want to come in," Char said, holding open the door. Jasper rolled his eyes and brushed past him.

"You're still as annoying as ever."

"Why thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment."

"It is to me."

"Of course it is," the youngest vampire muttered. He was in the kitchen, making a snack.

"I thought you said he was a vampire."

"He's living dead," Char explained.

"That would explain why Edward didn't recognize him as a vampire earlier. Does that mean that he doesn't need to drink blood?"

"I still do," Shisui answered in an attempt to remind them that he was still there. "It's just not as often. I only need to hunt about once a month."

"You eat humans."

"For the last time, Jasper, normal vampires can't survive on animals."

"You can get away with just eating animals?" Shisui asked excitedly.

"He also glitters in the sun instead of catching on fire, he's weird."

"Really?"

"I'm going to make you fall in love with an old man," Jasper threatened Char.

"Good luck considering you're going to school and all that."

"I could always take a few days off..."

"You weren't attatched to this place, were you Shisui?"

He crossed his arms. "You promised an entire month."

"Well something might happen and I might slip, and it's better to be safe than sorry anyway."

"I'll kill you," Shisui said seriously. He sharpened a knife, producing a metallic sound that made Char cringe.

"But you need me."

"Are you sure?"

Charoum didn't answer for a few seconds, and then he finally said, "I hate you both."

"I can fix that," Jasper offered.

"No thanks," Charoum said quickly. "It's not fair when you gang up on me, you know."

"You promised me a month provided that no one from The Organization shows up," Shisui reminded him.

"What is The Organization?" Jasper asked.

"They're a group devoted to killing any vampires that aren't a part of their group," Charoum explained. "Currently, we're being hunted by them. That's why I had to leave."

"I've never heard of them."

"Jasper, they only hunt real..." Charoum stopped when he saw Jasper's eyes narrow.

"If you only eat animals, they might not have noticed you," Shisui said. This seemed to have the desired effect, as Jasper stopped looking at Char as if he would like nothing more than to kill him.

"Even so, I think I would have noticed."

"Hang out with us for a while, you'll meet them," Charoum said.

"That reminds me, there are werewolves in the area that won't like you being here."

"If they think you're a vampire, I really doubt they'll be a problem for us," Shisui said. "No offense."

"No, werewolves will figure us out," Char said. "No wonder the Organization left..."

"Is there something that we should do?" Shisui asked.

"Just stay away from the La Push area," Jasper said. "They tolerate us because we don't eat people and we made a treaty with them a while back, but that doesn't apply to you."

"I'll be more careful about cleaning up, then," Charoum promised.

"It wouldn't be a problem if you didn't eat people."

"I told you, Jasper, it doesn't work for us."

"You've never tried it."

"I ran into someone who has. She died. Besides, humans are tasty. You're the one who taught me that."

"That was a long, long time ago," Jasper replied. "I've changed since then."

"I know, I know. And that's honorable, and I'm sure it's convienent. Your coven the same way?"

"Yes. In fact, it was Carlisle that showed Alice and I in a roundabout way that it was possible to survive on animals."

"Alice?"

"My soul mate. I met her before I met the rest of the coven, she sees the future and she saw them before we met them. She's the one who led us to Carlisle, the leader of our coven. If it weren't for her..." Jasper trailed off, thinking of what could have happened if it weren't for Alice.

As he said that, there was a knock at the door. Shisui got up and opened it to see a young woman with spiky black hair who was shorter than him standing on the doorstep. She peered around him, standing on tiptoe.

"Is Jasper here?" she asked.

Shisui moved out of the way. "Yeah."

"Speak of the devil, you must be Alice," Char said. "Nice to meet you, I'm Charoum, this is Shisui."

"I thought it was... never mind." She looked at Jasper. "There's something we need to talk about."

"Alice, they're vampires."

"No offense, but you don't smell like vampires."

Charoum curled his lips into a sort of smile, revealing his fangs. "I assure you that we're vampires."

"Then it must be you two that are messing up my visions. Jasper, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know until an hour ago," he said apologetically.

"And we'd like it to be kept a secret even from vampires anyway," Shisui said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do my homework."

"Are you a vegetarian?" Alice asked Charoum.

"I don't eat animals, so I guess so."

"They're a different sort of vampires than we are, Alice. They can't survive on animals," he told her.

"Have you tried?"

"No, but frankly, I don't feel the need to. Vampires eat people, not animals. Honestly, Jasper, you never mentioned me?"

"Can you blame me?"

"I'm hurt. Really. Anyway, it was a cold summer night..." Charoum began. Jasper glared at him.

"It was a hot summer's night, for one thing, and for another, you are not telling that story."

"What story?" Alice asked. She sat down in one of the chairs in the living room.

"The story of how the two of us met," Charoum said dramatically. He grinned. "It's a good one."

"It is not. Charoum, I'm warning you."

"Tell me." Alice's eyes shown with curiousity, Jasper had never tried to keep something from her before and she doubted this was a big deal.

"The sun had just dipped below the horizon, and I was lost. You have to understand, at the time I was new to being a vampire, I had only been turned about a week before. Anyway, I was confused and hungry and I had no idea what to do when he showed up out of nowhere.

"His face was a contorted mask of snarling, and his eyes an evil dark red. He snarled at me, and hissed as he stalked forward. Terrified by the demon..."

"I am not a demon, for one thing, and that is not what happened." Jasper rubbed his temples as if he had a headache.

"Sh," Char told him. Alice giggled. "Anyway, I knew he was going to try and kill me, so I drew my pistol..."

"You did not have a pistol."

"He doesn't know what he's talking about, he was blinded by hunger. Anyway, I drew my pistol and fired it at him, hitting him square in the forhead. I wasn't planning on that happening, but suddenly what I had to do became clear. I threw the pistol to the side and took a fighting stance, prepared to battle the horrible, horrible demon..."

"No, you got on your knees and pleaded for mercy," Jasper corrected.

"... and he lunged. I almost had him, too, when he punched me square in the temple as hard as he could. Otherwise, it wouldn't have any effect. In the brief time that I was dazed, he pinned my arms to my sides and wrenched my head to the side. He said, 'If you scream, I'll kill you. You got that?' in the scariest voice I could imagine, and then buried his fangs in my neck. I was about to attack him again, this time I wouldn't go easy on him, when he pulled them out again, hissing and spitting."

"I don't have fangs," Jasper pointed out. "And no, he didn't fight me. We all know who would have won that fight.

"You had fangs at the time," Charoum replied before continuing with his story. "Apparently, I had tasted too awesome for him to handle..."

"You tasted disgusting, the worst thing I had ever tasted."

"Will you stop interrupting! Anyway, after that he kidnapped me and forced me to become his apprentice. Eventually, I managed to break away from his tyrannical ways, convinced him to join the light, and basically made him into the loveable vampire you see today."

Jasper rolled his eyes. "You're impossible to deal with. It doesn't seem possible that I put up with you for as long as I did."

"Ah, but those were the times." Charoum put his arm over Jasper. His eyes gained a dreamy look, and he stretched his arm in front of them as if gesturing to something unseen. "It was just you and me versus the whole world."

Jasper pushed him off. "Obnoxious."

"Why thank you. So, Alice, what about you? How'd you meet Jasper?"

Alice told the story, and then they chatted until the dawn approached. As soon as light blue tinged the edge of the sky, Charoum adruptly stood up and began pulling the curtains on the windows shut.

"What are you doing? It's just us," Alice said.

"Maybe, but that doesn't make catching on fire pleasant," Char said.

"You catch on fire if you get caught in the sun?" Alice asked.

"Yes. It's only happened once, but it's not going to happen again as long as I can do something to prevent it."

"Well we had better get going, school starts in a few hours" Jasper stood up and Alice did too.

"It was nice meeting you," she said.

"You too."

"Does he really catch on fire in the sunlight?" Alice asked Jasper as they ran back to their home. It would be a good fifteen minute run from where they were.

"Yes. He's a bit more of a traditional vampire than we are, minus the coffin."

"I've never heard of that outside of books. It's interesting. Oh! Maybe tomorrow would could convince him and Shisui to come over."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea..." He could remember quite a few incidents that could be brought up that he didn't want his family to know about.

"Please?" She looked up at him with puppy dog eyes, knowing that he wouldn't be able to resist.

"Fine, but we can't let him know that Bella knows what we are, alright?"

"Why not? Do you think he would contact the Volturi?"

"No, definitely not. He doesn't even know they exist, but it won't hurt to be careful."

"Where were you two?" Esme asked when they walked back into the house. Worry colored her tone and shone in her eyes. "Edward said something about running into an old friend, but..."

"It's all right, he's an old friend of Jasper's," Alice explained.

"Vampire friend?" Esme asked.

"Yep, he and Shisui, I mean Glenn, are both vampires. Is it ok if they come over tomorrow?"

"Are they vegetetarian?" Carlisle asked.

"No, but he's careful and I warned him about the wolves," Jasper said.

"There's a nonvegetarian vampire going to the same school Bella goes to?" Edward growled, descending the stairs in a flash. "Absolutely not."

"No one's going to eat her, Edward." Jasper toned his anger down a bit, not enough for Edward to notice, but enough for it to make an impact.

He still narrowed his eyes. "You know how Bella's blood smells, and what happened with James." His hands curled into fists. "I'm not going to allow her to be in that much danger."

"Well I'm all for it," Rosalie said. "Maybe being attacked by one of us will make her realize what kind of monsters we really are."

Edward growled at her, and Carlisle put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from attacking her. "Perhaps we should wait until we've met him to pass judgement."

"Char's too cowardly to attack someone else's human anyway, and I'm sure that he's made sure Shisui wouldn't even think of it," Jasper said.

"She is _not_ my human. She's my _girlfriend_."

"It doesn't matter, neither of them will go after her because she's with you."

"I'm not convinced, and I don't want them in this area."

"Edward, don't you see? The best solution is for you to turn Bella into a vampire," Alice said.

Edward snarled at her. "I will not condemn her to this damned life, and I will not allow her to be put in harm's way again!"

"She's always going to be in danger until you turn her into a vampire," Jasper said.

"No, she won't. She'll live a normal, human life without me. It's time for us to move on anyway, just as soon as these new vampires leave."

"At least let me say goodbye." Alice wasn't happy about it, but she knew that nothing would change Edward's mind.

"No, she can't know until after the rest of you are gone, and I'll tell her."

"That's not fair! She's my friend too!" Alice shouted.

"But she's my soul mate," Edward said. "And I'll know if you're planning something, so don't even bother."

He turned on his heel and back up the stairs and into his room. Alice began sobbing against Jasper's chest, but no tears would come out.

Later that morning, in school, Shisui couldn't understand what he had done to warrant the death glares Edward was shooting him.

"Just ignore it, he does the same thing to me all the time," Mike said.

"I haven't talked to him once."

Mike shrugged. "I haven't done anything to him either. I think it might be because he thinks that he's better than everyone else at this school."

He continued to do this all through their science class, but apparently that wasn't enough.

"Glenn," he said in a near growl. Bella looked confused.

"Edward?"

"What do you want, Cullen?" Mike asked.

"This doesn't concern you." It was obvious that he was doing his best to make Mike go away.

"I'll catch up with you, Mike."

"See you."

"You should go too, Bella."

"But..."

He turned to her and put his hands on the tops of her arms. "Please," he asked, knowing that he would dazzle her.

She bit her bottom lip. "I... guess I'll see you at lunch." She sounded hurt, and it hurt Edward to hear and see her that way, but she shouldn't be there for this conversation. He kissed her on the cheek and waited until she was out of earshot.

"You planning on telling me what this is about?" Shisui asked. He was a little annoyed by the glares and the near growling from earlier, and it showed.

"You stay away from Bella."

"What?"

"I know what you are, and I don't want you or the man who's like you around here. Do you understand?"

Shisui crossed his arms. "I can control myself."

"You're not a vegetarian."

"Point being?"

"I don't want you around her, or even in the area. Leave Forks."

"No thanks, I like it here." Shisui's voice had taken a hard, challenging tone. Edward growled softly.

"You _will_ leave." Edward was going to walk away, when Shisui's next words stopped him.

"No, I won't. I don't know what your problem is, but I'm not leaving, especially just because you say so. If it was a territory thing, that would be fine, but it's not, so I'm staying right here."

For being shorter, Shisui was doing an excellent job of holding his ground against the physically superior vampire. They were keeping their voices down because of the crowd that had gathered in anticipation of a fight, but both backed off when a teacher approached.

"Is there a problem here, boys?" he asked, looking mostly at Shisui.

"No, Mr. Whitter," Edward said, though he didn't stop glaring at Shisui.

"Good, then both of you get to class. I won't have fighting on this campus."

"What did Cullen want?" Mike asked. "It looked pretty serious."

"The guy has issues, let's just put it that way."

"Yeah, but normally he doesn't almost get into fights with people. But you know that I'll back you up, right?"

"Thanks, Mike."

Mike clapped him on the back and left for his next class.

Angela didn't ask about the incident at all, which apparently was a big deal for whatever reason. It seemed that it was all the other students could talk about.

"What was up with Cullen earlier?" Patrick asked. Shisui had almost forgotten he was in the class.

All of the people staring at him, including the teacher though she was trying to be subtle about it, were desperate to know what had happened. Edward gave of the appearance of nothing less than perfection, even though a lot of people secretly thought otherwise. He had never broken the facade, though, so they were interested.

"He thought I was interested in Bella for some reason."

"Are you?" one of the girls who Shisui didn't know the name of asked.

"Um... not really, no."

She smiled at that. "That's good to know."

The bell then rang, and the girl reluctantly returned to her desk. Then the teacher began talking.

At lunch he was interrogated again, though he found it harder to stay tight lipped about what had happened as they felt more at ease with being persistant and they had more time. Eventually, though, they backed off and conversation returned to the usual chatter.

"Hey, Glenn."

"Yeah, Bella?"

This was the last time he'd have to deal with this nonsense until tomorrow. Really, was two people having a confrontation like that so rare?

"Edward really didn't mean anything by that. He's just... protective of me is all."

Before he got the chance to ask what she meant by that, whether she knew what had actually transpired or if he acted this jealously against anyone, she was already gone. Shisui really wasn't convinced that he acted like that often. But now he had to be sure. He got into the car with Charoum still wearing a contemplative expression.

"You can tell me about it later," Char said, knowing that the Cullens could hear them even though they were in a different car.

"Yeah."

Charoum followed the other car, one that Edward wasn't in because he was driving Bella home, deep into the woods. Eventually they came to a rather large house that could be classified as a mansion. Charoum had seen houses like this before, but Shisui gaped for a minute before he realized that's what he was doing.

"Welcome to our home," Jasper said. "Oh, I almost forgot that you haven't met Emmet and Rosalie yet, and this is Carlisle and that's Esme."

"Nice to meet you," Esme said warmly, shaking their hands. Carlisle did the same.

"Edward won't be home for a while, but you'll meet him later," Jasper said. He held the door open for everyone.

"This is a nice house," Charoum remarked.

"Thank you," Esme said.

"So, Jasper tells me that there are werewolves down on the beach," Charoum said. "I've run into werewolves before and they were actually pretty cool about the vampire thing, but he made it seem like these guys aren't like that. Were they offended by some particular incident, or is it the eating people thing?"

"It's our diet," Carlisle explained. "And I'd really prefer not to get into a war with them. The best way to avoid that would be to stop hunting humans."

"Unfortunately, that's impossible. I don't know what Jasper told you, but we're a bit different from you guys. Part of that involves not being able to hunt anything but humans, but if something happens we'll definitely make sure to make it clear that your coven was in no way involved."

"When you say different..." Carlisle began.

"We're a little closer to being a traditional vampire out of an Anne Rice novel. I'm undead, and he's living dead, so even we're a little different, but not by much. I can't go out while the sun is shining because I will burst into flame. It's happened before. It's not a problem for him, though. I also get burned by things like crosses, and I can't abide the smell of garlic. Shisui has reactons too, just not as severe as I do. Another thing, I need to hunt about once a week, he only needs to hunt about once a month, but he also needs to eat regular food just like a human would. As for abilities, neither of us can read minds or feel another person's emotions, and I'm stronger than him, but nowhere near as strong or fast as you guys are. One last thing, both of us are deathly allergic to silver. We get really, really sick and die." He shivered. "It's awful."

"You're forgetting the part about not being able to enter houses where people are living without permission."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that one."

"Interesting. What about your control?" he asked. "Jasper says that you know how to clean up after yourself," he told Charoum, "but what about resisting temptation altogether?"

"I know how not to kill someone in public," Shisui all but growled.

Charoum looked at him, but Shisui offered no explation at all. "I can control myself too, and I know how to feed but not kill. He's still learning."

Carlisle nodded. "How long were you two planning on staying in Forks?"

"About a month, give or take a few days," Char answered. "What about you guys?"

"We haven't quite decided yet, but we'll probably be moving on soon," Esme answered. A look of annoyance flashed on Shisui's face, but it was gone in an instant.

"What?" Charoum asked him, by this point very confused.

"I'll tell you about it later," Shisui replied dismissively. So Edward was trying to get them to go away when he was leaving anyway? That really pissed him off. Enough that he was wondering if even with the inferior strength and speed he could still take him in a fight.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"So, how many times have you finished high school?" Emmet asked eventually.

"Let's see... once?" Charoum looked like he was trying hard to remember. "Yeah, because I was turned just a few days after graduation."

"None," Shisui said. "I had to leave during the sixth grade because I was turned into a vampire, and it's taken me four years to gain enough control to handle it. Well, the whole seeing the world thing might have had something to do with it, but point still stands. What about you guys?"

"We have a hanging Esme made of all of our graduation hats, if you want to go see it," Alice offered.

"In other words, a lot," Emmet said.

The front door opened, then closed again, and Edward walked into the room. The very first thing he did was glare at Shisui, who glared right back. It was like some cheesy, vampiric stare down. All they needed to do was go outside and draw their guns for the duel to begin, only Shisui would be a at a horrible disadvantage because Edward happened to be bulletproof. It also happened to be impossible to miss the exchange.

"What was that?" Esme asked. She was much less than pleased at her son's behavior.

"I knew something happened earlier today," Alice said. She hadn't been sure whether the students had been exaggerating or not, and Edward had refused to say a word at lunch. Judging by what just happened, they hadn't been making things up at all.

Charoum could safely say that he had never seen Shisui that pissed. He was really expecting him to challenge the other vampire to a fight any minute now.

"Edward?" Carlisle asked.

"They shouldn't be here," was all he had to say on the matter.

"I've yet to slip," Shisui practically spat. Charoum was becoming more and more curious as to what the exchange had been about.

"That doesn't mean that it won't happen." Thick drops of disdain dripped off of the words and they nearly audibly hit the floor.

"Just because I'm not some idiot pixie who's jealous enough to try and scare away people that aren't even interested, even though they're planning on leaving they're girlfriend or whatever anyway..."

Edward didn't wait for him to finish, he rushed at Shisui.

"Jasper!" Charoum called, knowing that Edward could cause some serious damage if he wanted to.

He and Carlisle managed to pull Edward off, but it wasn't without effort. His face was contorted into a snarl, and he hissed at Shisui even as he was dragged off. Shisui was honestly finding it hard to make a reply, he was pretty sure Edward had crushed every one of his ribs.

"What have we learned about picking on people that are stronger than us?" Charoum asked as he approached the other vampire. The ribs would heal within the week, but it wouldn't be pleasant in the mean time.

"No, leave him. I'm a doctor, I'll do it," Carlisle said. He gave a very disappointed look to Edward, who didn't look ashamed in the slightest. He still looked livid.

Charoum stopped trying to figure out how best to pick him up without hurting him further, instead letting Carlisle take care of it.

"Mind telling the class why you decided to assault my apprentice?" he asked.

"He insulted my relationship with Bella."

"Right... and that's why you felt the need to break every one of his ribs. I can see how that's justified," Charoum said sarcastically.

Edward growled softly. "He doesn't understand."

"See how much I care? Granted, you shouldn't antagonize people that are that much stronger than you," he told Shisui, "but under no circumstances is it acceptable to do that much damage over your girlfriend, under any circumstances except maybe killing her. Am I clear?"

He often didn't seem like it, but Charoum had his protective side, and even though Edward was stronger, faster, and read minds, he would find a way to get back at him if it happened again.

"His presence puts her in danger, you both do."

"And you don't?" Charoum raised his eyebrow and looked at Edward critically.

"That's different."

"How?"

Edward glared at him, unable to come up with an excuse. "It just is," he said through grit teeth. He waited a few minutes, during that time Charoum didn't relinquish the look that said, "that's not good enough of an answer," so he turned and left.

"I have to admit, that was pretty amazing. I haven't ever seen Edward get that good of a verbal thrashing," Rosalie said. "Can he join our coven?"

"So he has a backbone after all," Jasper muttered. He had definitely not been expecting that.

"Sorry about that," Charoum told Carlisle. "But I won't tolerate someone beating up someone that I'm supposed to be responsible over something like that. Though you really shouldn't have antagonized him," Charoum told Shisui firmly.

The youngest vampire in the house found that he was unable to reply.

"I'll talk to him later." Quite frankly, he expected better of Edward and was disapointed that he would attack someone weaker like that, regardless of whether he was a vampire or not. "The good news is that not all of his ribs are broken Five total, three on the left and two on the right. Just make sure that he gets plenty of bed rest, and he'll be fine. Oh yes, and here's a perscription for pain medication."

"Thanks, I'll stop by the hospital later. Now about getting him home..."

"I'll carry him, it'll be easiest."

Charoum smiled sheepishly. "Thank you, I really appreciate that. I'll go get the car and meet you there in a few minutes."


	6. They're a Threat, Carlisle

"Edward," Carlisle said as he opened the door. The vampire looked as if he was trying to drown out the world his music as headphones were on his ears. He took them off.

"They're a threat, Carlisle. I don't want a repeat of James."

"Jasper has assured me that neither of them are like James."

"We both know about the kinds of people Jasper associated with before Alice found him."

"Edward."

"It's true, and we all know it. And you know what Bella smells like, and how she's a magnet for trouble."

"And the only way you're going to be able to protect her from that is if you're in the area, Edward. This place is a magnet for vampires, and there are werewolves on the beach. Are you going to try and make them leave, too?"

"I'm not only because I can't. But I have to keep her safe, Carlisle. She's the one that makes my existance... not meaningless. If something were to happen to her..." His hands clenched tightly into fists. "But Shisui was right, I'm a bigger threat to her than he and Charoum are. I've made a descision, I'm breaking up with her tomorrow."

"If that's what you think is right, Edward."


	7. We Can't Kill Her, It's Rude

Following the breakup, it took Bella a week to return to school. She knew her father worried about her, so one day she decided that she was ready to return. She was in a zombie-like state, though, and nearly missed the rumors that were flying around the halls.

Apparently, Edward had killed Glenn over Bella, and then had been forced to run for fear of being arrested.

That snapped her out of her mood like nothing else, and she became furious with anyone who repeated the rumor within her hearing range. Of course, she couldn't prove anything because Glenn had yet to appear and no one knew where he lived, but she knew Edward would never do anything like that, and she remembered that Edward had told her to stay away from him because he wasn't a vegetarian vampire.

Suddenly, she was filled with hope. If she could convince im to change her, then she would be able to go searching for Edward, and he wouldn't have to worry about damning her immortal soul. It was the perfect plan, she just had to wait until he reappeared at school.

It turned out that she only had to wait until Wednesday. Well, after school on Wednesday, all through the day he was surrounded by people who wanted to know why he had been gone for an entire week, and there were too many people around anyway. She managed to corner him in the parking lot.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked, butterflies welling in her stomach.

"Sure." He held up a finger to Charoum, telling him that he was going to be a minute.

"I was wondering if you could turn me into a vampire," she said. "I know that's what you are, and I really need to find Edward. Please."

Shisui blinked in confusion, twice. "What are you talking about?"

"I know. Edward told me about you and your guardian, what you are. I'm begging you, I need this!"

Luckily, the parking lot was mostly empty.

"You see that car over there?" he jabbed his thumb at the car Charoum had acquired in a less than legal way. "Follow it, alright?"

He really, really didn't want to have to deal with this, but it was time to leave Forks anyway and Char wasn't going to stand for her knowing. Quite frankly, he wasn't going to either. He would leave it up to Char whether they turned her or just killed her.

"Thank you!" Bella wrapped her arms around Shisui, not realizing that he really wasn't big on physical contact. Then she pretty much sprinted to her truck, a hulking monstrosity, and got it started.

"Stealing Edward's girlfriend?"

"Oh hell no. I can't just leave her here though, she knows."

Charoum banged his head on the steering wheel, though he didn't hit the horn. "It's official, this place has some kind of curse on it. Well, we can't kill her."

"Why not?"

He started driving, and the oblivious girl behind them followed. "Because, Jasper made it clear that she was a good friend of Alice's, so killing her would be rude."

"They left her behind," Shisui whined.

"Worried that she might become my favorite?"

"No way, I couldn't care less. No, she just seems really annoying."

"Give her a chance, Shisui. She might not be that bad."

Charoum didn't lead Bella to their apartment, but to an abandoned warehouse he had found and apparently decided to use in emergancies. All three of them got out of their respective vehicles.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Bella?" he asked her. If she said no, he would have no choice but to kill her. As rude as it was to kill a human that belonged..? he wasn't sure if that term applied anymore, to another vampire, it was even less polite to turn her into a vampire against her will.

"Yes," she said, though her pulse had quickened and her breathing had become more rapid.

Charoum placed one hand on the back of her head, and the other along her jaw. He sunk his teeth into her throat while Shisui kept a lookout. Once Charoum had nearly drained her of blood, he opened a wound on her own skin and let a few drops drip into her mouth. He had learned from watching another vampire who, at the time, had been trying to create an army, that it was best not to let them suck directly on the wound, as they tended to go overboard.


	8. That's it?

"That's it?" Bella asked a few seconds later. There was no unbearable pain coursing through her body, and she felt human.

"That's it," Charoum confirmed.

Then she caught scent of a stray human walking by. Without thinking, she lunged forward and Charoum had to hold her back. She fought him, or tried to. Charoum was much stronger than her.

"Let me go!"

"We'll leave her car here. Shisui, open the back door."

Shisui did, and climbed in after her. He held her in place long enough to get a seatbelt around her, and by that time she had calmed down. Charoum started driving.

"What just happened?" she asked.

"You're a vampire, you almost ate someone," Shisui said.

"Don't worry, we'll stop next chance we get." Charoum was trying to be reassuring.

"I can't eat people," Bella said. "That was never a part of the deal, I'll eat animals. Like the Cullens."

"Jasper owes me for this one," Charoum muttered. "No, you can't eat animals. It's like only drinking water to humans, you'll die."

"But..."

"You can try it," Shisui said. "But it's not going to work."

"I will."

"So, Bella, how long have you known the Cullens?" Charoum asked. He kind of wanted to know how mad at him they were going to be.

Her breath hitched as the hole in her chest was ripped open. "A year now," she told him.

"Something wrong?" Charoum asked.

"It just hurts..."

In his opinion, it was just another break up, which happened all the time, but he knew that was insensitive and so he didn't say so.

"Figure out where we're going yet?" Shisui asked Charoum to change the subject.

"I was thinking Canada. They've probably got plenty of small towns we can start off in."

"We should probably get some clothes for her, while we're at it," Shisui suggested.

"We'll wait until she gets a little more used to being a vampire until we do that. Unless you feel like going in for her?"

"It's hard to keep a low profile if she has to walk back with clothes soaked in blood."

"True."

"Why can't I go?" Bella asked.

"It's not really considered acceptable in polite society to eat the store clerk," Charoum smiled at her through the mirror above the dash.

"I'm not going to eat anyone!"

"You're going to have to forgive us for being a little skeptical, you're still a fledgling."

"Bella, being a vampire isn't going to be like being one of the Cullens. They're more of the exception to the rule," Shisui told her. "You're not going to sparkle in the sunlight, and you're not going to have super strength or speed."

"But..."

"I hate to break it to you, but they're not vampires. They're pixies," Charoum said mock seriously.

Bella glared at him. For the rest of the car ride she was silent.

They started looking for a motel around midnight because of Charoum's sensitivity to light, and around three in the morning they found one. Shisui woke Bella up because they had both fallen asleep, and they staggered into the room. Since Charoum didn't need to sleep, he had gotten one room with two twin beds in it. Shisui crawled into one and Bella crawled into the other, and then they were out. Car rides were not very conductive to sleeping well.

When Shisui woke up again, it was around two in the afternoon. He yawned and stretched, then got out of the bed and replaced the covers. They smelled like mildew, even though the rest of the place seemed to be at least decently clean.

"Afternoon," Char greeted. He had the blinds and the curtains closed, and a do not disturb sign on the door. A sketch pad that he must have pulled from the ever present backpack was in front of him while he sat at the desk. It was obvious that he had been drawing.

"Afternoon," Shisui replied. He used the water heater on the bathroom counter to heat some water for coffee since he needed the caffeine. "What's the plan for today?" he asked.

"Bella needs to go hunting, but we'll do that at night. I also need to go hunting at some point soon."

"You want me to babysit?" He took a sip of the coffee and grimaced, even with the sugar and creamer it tasted just short of awful.

"Not tonight, probably tomorrow, but yeah. Don't want her doing something stupid."

Shisui nodded in agreement. "Still think turning her was a good idea?"

Charoum shrugged. "To be perfectly honest, I'd like to find the Cullens and have them deal with her, but that's not exactly an option as I don't know how to contact them." He sighed. "I guess we're just going to have to find them the old fashion way."

"You hate me," Bella muttered. It sounded as if she had been crying.

"No, if we hated you, you wouldn't be here right now," Shisui said, sounding kind of confused.

Charoum sent a look telling him that he wasn't helping. "No, we don't hate you," he told her, sitting down on the bed next to her. He sent several obvious glances at the door, basically telling Shisui to get out.

"Fine," he mouthed, and left. He took Charoum's wallet with him, not that Char noticed.

"Look, Bella, I know this is a big change..." he began.

"You can't even begin to know how I feel!" she yelled suddenly. Charoum recoiled a little, not expecting that kind of reaction. "I was supposed to be fast and strong and beautiful, and I was supposed to finally be good enough for Edward, but instead I'm just like my human self, only I have to drink human blood!" Had she not been already lying down, she probably would have flopped dramatically.

"I'm beginning to think that you hate us instead of the other way around," he said in a dejected voice, complete with a little pout.

"Thanks to you, I'll never be perfect like Edward. So yes, I hate you."

"Well, that sucks, but doesn't it at least beat the alternative of being dead?" he asked, trying to get her to see the bright side of things.

"No," she said flatly.

"... Are you serious?" he asked, any hint of joking slipping out of his voice.

She turned to look at him finally, taking her head out of her pillow. "What's the point of being a vampire if I'm not finally going to deserve Edward?" she asked him, lip trembling.

"You're kidding me, right?" He realized that he was having about as much tact as Shisui, but he couldn't wrap his mind around needing someone like that.

"Of course not," she told him, glaring with red rimmed eyes for not taking her seriously. She was sitting up now, blankets pooling in her lap.

"You would seriously die for him?" he asked, looking as if he didn't believe that at all because he didn't.

"Of course! Edward is my reason for living, I just..."

"Well?"

She bit her lip and looked away. "I just can't let go of the possiblity that he might come back for me," she muttered.

"Your whole life revolves around this guy, huh?"

She nodded again, still not looking him in the eye. Charoum put a finger under her chin and tilted it up, forcing her to look at him.

"Listen to me, Bella. You wanted to be a vampire and live forever, and that's what you are now. Edward is not going to come to your rescue, because he won't know where to find you. Do you understand that?"

Tears were welling in the corners of her eyes, but she nodded. "Yes."

"Good. You're also capable of living without him, because you're going to need to, ok?"

"Yes."

He let go of her chin. "Hey, it won't be so bad. You'll see." He smiled encouragingly, but she didn't smile back. "Hey, you have any hobbies?"

"I, um, like to read," she sniffled.

"I have a few books, if you want to take your mind off of things for a while," he offered.

She nodded, and he started searching through his backpack until he found one that she might like. She took it, skimmed the back cover, and then opened it.

"Thanks."

Charoum smiled without showing his teeth. "You're welcome."

When Shisui got back, Charoum was drawing again and Bella was reading quietly. He set a bag of clothes he had bought on her bed.

"I kind of had to guess your size," he admitted.

She bit her lip. "Thanks."

Shisui nodded, a sort of, "you're welcome."

"Did you get me any pencils?" Charoum asked.

"You know, I almost didn't. You need to, I don't know, communicate these things to me?"

Charoum caught the box. "Love you!"

Shisui made a face. "Ew, pedophile."

"Only for you," Charoum teased. Shisui mimed gagging.

"You're disgusting."

Charoum chuckled. "Ok, I'll stop. Besides, you know I'm only joking."

"You seriously need to find a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Whatever."

Charoum set his pencil down and turned to give Shisui an indecrulous look. "Who's fault would that be?"

"Hey, I've been getting better!"

"We're barely able to stay in one place for a week. I used to have a month."

"Isn't that what one night stands are for?" Shisui grumbled.

"What would you know about one night stands?" Charoum asked, one eyebrow raised.

Shisui blushed. "I..."

"Are you really have this conversation right now?" Bella asked, her plea for them to stop not so hidden in her voice.

Charoum smirked. "Don't think you're getting out of this conversation, Sushi."

"...Sushi?"

"I told you not to call me that," Shisui grumbled. He found it entirely appropriate to leave the apartment again, not being gentle about closing the door.

"Sorry, Bella. I guess it might take you a while to get used to the craziness. And, for the record, you probably shouldn't call him Sushi. He hates it."

Bella opened her mouth like she was going to argue Charoum's logic, but closed it again instead. She seemed to understand that it wouldn't work. She wondered just what the hell she had gotten herself into instead.


	9. Hunting Without Guns is Hard

"Bella, you ready to go?" Charoum asked. He was wearing the grungiest of the clothes he owned, having learned from Shisui that this would be messy. Shisui himself was dressed in all black, as usual, and was mostly going to make sure no one came near.

She shook her head. "No, I can't."

"Bella, I know that it sounds repulsive, but you have to," Charoum said. "You'll die otherwise."

"I'll be like the Cullens..."

Charoum was going to argue with her again, but Shisui cut in. "Let her try it," he said, surprising the older vampire.

Charoum seemed to accept it anyway, and shrugged. "Alright, Bella. I'm sure there's some tasty animals around here somewhere."

Bella looked a bit happier as she left the room, and the three headed into the forest for some late night hunting.

Fifteen minutes later, they hadn't seen a single bit of wildlife except for the occasional bird, but vampires are not meant to fly. The sound of snow being crushed was deafening to Charoum in the silence.

"I think we should head back into town," he said, not caring if he scared the other animals off. They were probably long gone by now anyway.

"But..." Bella began. Charoum shook his head.

"We aren't going to catch anything out here, and even if we spot something, we have nothing to bring it down with."

"I can't eat a person," Bella whined, there was no other word for it.

"It's the way we are," Char replied. "Don't worry, vampire instincts shut down any feeling you might have towards them," he reassured her.

"I don't care."

Shisui rolled his eyes. "Look, Bella, if it really means that much to you, there are a few deer in that direction. I'll kill one, if you can't do it yourself." They stared at him. "Don't look at me like that, I went hunting often enough when I was younger," he grumbled.

"Would you?"

He gave her a look that seemed to say that he wouldn't have offered otherwise. "I'll come and get you in a minute," he said.

A few seconds later, the silence was broken by the sound of trampling hooves. Bella looked at Char, silently asking what happened, but he said nothing. Shisui returned, and blood dripped from his hand. His nose was also wrinkled.

"Alright, I killed it, but I'm pretty sure that you're not going to want to eat it." He punctuated the statement by shaking some of the blood from his hand and holding it away from himself.

"Is it really that bad?" Charoum asked, amused by his reaction.

Shisui raised his eyebrows at the older vampire. "You go over there and tell me," he answered. "I'm going back to the park to clean my hand off, this stuff is disgusting."

Not believing that it was really as gross as Shisui seemed to think it was, Charoum followed the tracks in the snow to see for himself. He was greeted by the smell of blood that was utterly unappealing, but it wasn't all that repulsive.

Bella seemed to think otherwise. She was staring at the carcass, nose wrinkled, completely still.

"Are you going to just stare it, or are you going to eat it?" Charoum asked, finding this mildly amusing.

"You don't smell that? It smells like it's been dead for weeks," she complained.

"That blood is fresh," he told her. It was still glinting, not even frozen yet.

She shook her head, backing away. "I can't eat that," she said, sounding a little scared. She looked at Charoum for guidance.

"Hm, that sounds familiar..."

Her eyes narrowed. That was not the reaction she had been expecting, he was supposed to be more like he was earlier, a little more like Carlisle.

"What do I do now?" she asked, not bothering to hide the fact that she was a little peeved at him.

"Shisui's waiting at the park," Charoum told her. "And this doesn't change the fact that you still need to eat."

She grimaced, and not from the smell this time. "Are you sure there's no other way? Can't we steal blood from the hospital, or something?"

Charoum laughed at her. "Wow, you really did think that this was going to be easy, didn't you? No, we can't rob a hospital, they don't like that. Besides, what about the decent people that actually need that blood?"

Bella blushed. She hadn't thought of that. "There has to be another way," she murmered.

"Nope," Charoum said. He started walking towards Shisui, who he knew would start getting impatient right about now. Bella followed after giving the dead deer a longing stare.

"There's a hobo over there," Shisui said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. "Even better, he's passed out because he's drunk."

Bella paled. "But, I don't want to..."

Shisui rolled his eyes. "Are you going to go over there, or are we going to have to drag you?"

"I'll just make myself get over the smell..." Bella began, but Shisui didn't want to hear it. He grabbed her arm and began dragging her over to the bench, knowing that if she got close enough to catch his scent she wouldn't be able to help herself.

As predicted, she lost control when she got close to the sleeping man and stopped struggling to get him to let go. Shisui, predicting that she would spatter blood, stepped back to stand with Charoum.

"That's one way to do it," Char said.

"I can't stand her whining, hopefully she'll stop now."

Charoum chuckled. "You don't know a thing about women, do you?"

Shisui scowled. "This is the exact reason why I don't date."

Charoum couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.

"Shut up," Shisui hissed, nudging him sharply in the ribs. Charoum did, eventually.

"Remind me to get you a girlfriend some time, that'll just be too funny."

Shisui punched him in the arm, making Charoum say, "ow," and rub his arm. "What was that for?"

Shisui was already walking away, though, and Charoum followed. Bella was crying over the corpse of the man she had killed. She was spattered with gore and blood, and she had her hands poised over his chest, trying to pump his heart.

"Bella, there's no point in doing that," Charoum told her. "There's no more blood in his body anyway."

"I can't believe that I..."

"Don't think about it," Shisui told her. He handed her a bag. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

Shisui put his hand on her shoulder to guide her towards the bathrooms. He waited for her patiently to clean herself up while Charoum cleaned up the body. When she was done, he could see that she had attempted to get the blood off as well as she possibly could, but there were still spots that she had missed.

"Charoum, I'm taking her back to the hotel," Shisui told the older vampire.

"I'll join you in a few minutes," came the reply.

Bella jumped into the shower as soon as they got back, and didn't come back out for another forty minutes. Charoum still wasn't back by that time, and Shisui came to the conclusion that he was hunting. He was a bit annoyed with that, considering that Charoum was much better with Bella than he was, and he had no idea how to talk to someone who was traumatized from killing someone for the first time, no matter how necessary it was.

She was only wearing her towel, apparently disgusted with the clothes she had been wearing earlier. Her appearance was the last thing on her mind, understandably.

Shisui, being a teenage boy, had some trouble not staring. His face turned red and he refused to look in her direction. She sat on her bed, trying not to think about the blood she could still feel on her fingers despite the fact that she had scrubbed them clean.

"I don't blame you for being disgusted with me," she said softly. "I am too."

Where the hell was Charoum when he was needed? "I'm not disgusted with you, Bella. It's just that you're only in a towel," he said quite bluntly. Bella turned crimson.

"Oh."

"Walmart's probably open," he said, not wanting an awkward silence. "I could run over and get some clothes for you," he offered, standing up.

"Please don't," she said. "I don't want to be alone."

Her voice broke with a sob. Shisui looked over at her, and felt bad when he saw that she was crying.

"Do you want me to hug you?" he asked awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

Bella nodded. She really wanted Edward right now. Shisui put his arms around her, and she leaned into his side.

"Am I really going to have to do this forever?" she sniffled.

"It gets easier," he said. "Not for a while, but it does."

"I don't want to kill people," Bella told him.

"Don't think about it when you don't have to. That's the best advice I can give you."

This only made her start crying more, and she buried her face in his shoulder. She continued sobbing for a while, until she ran out of emotion. At that point, she just liked being held and didn't want to move, and Shisui didn't push her away. She felt numb.

"Sorry I took so long," Charoum said when he came back. He draped his coat over the chair and propped his umbrella against the wall.

Shisui glared at him, but said nothing. Charoum's smile faded a little.

"I said I'm sorry..." He pouted, eyes begging for forgiveness. "And I was hungry! Anyway, I was thinking that it might be a better idea to leave tonight. We can make it to the next town by dawn if we leave soon."

Shisui shifted a little. "Bella, I need to get up so I can run to the store and get you some new clothes," he said.

"Oh. Ok." She let go of him and wrapped her arms tightly around her stomach instead. Char took Shisui's place, only he didn't put his arms around her.

"How're you holding up?" he asked, and put a hand on her back comfortingly.

"I don't know," she told him. "I just feel... numb. And dirty. I miss my mom, and Charlie..."

"I'm sorry."

Bella leaned into his side, craving the comfort.


	10. Don't Call Me Sushi

"This is a terrible idea, none of us speak a word of Portugese." Shisui had his arms crossed and he looked extremely annoyed.

"I do, and you'll learn."

"It might be fun," Bella said. It had been about a month since she had been turned, and so far she had yet to leave the U.S. and Brazil sounded fun.

"See? That's the spirit," Charoum said cheerily.

They were on a boat since the plane tickets were expensive and Charoum claimed that it would be more fun this way.

"We're going to get beaten up and killed."

"The only thing that's going to get killed is my good mood, and that's because you're being a Debbie Downer," Charoum told him.

"Right. So when get shot, just remember that I told you so."

"Sushi, Sushi, Sushi, even if we get shot, it's not going to kill us."

"Do. Not. Call me that," he hissed. "And it may not kill you, but Bella and I are living dead."

"I'm sure you can beat up anyone that wants to take advantage of us," Charoum said.

"That's not the point, and you know it," he grumbled.

"Come on, Shisui," Bella said. Despite the fact that it was a hard name to pronounce, she didn't want to be on the recieving end of the virulent glares he shot at anyone who dared called him "Sushi." "I'm sure nothing bad will happen." She was doing her best to make him sound ridiculous, and Charoum couldn't help it. He burst out laughing.

"You're cute, Bells. You know that?"

She blushed, even though she knew that Charoum meant it in the least romantic way possible. Shisui was staring at her as if she had said the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

"You're kidding me, right Bella? Do you not watch the news, at all?"

"I hate to say it, Bells, but Sushi's got a point this time."

"Next time you call me that, I'm going to punch you in the jaw," he threatened.

Charoum put his arm around the younger vampire. "You know I only say it because I love you."

Shisui pushed him off and brushed off his shoulders. "If you really loved me you wouldn't insist that we go to Brazil," he grumbled.

"Then it really is too bad that I'm only pretending."

"What's wrong with Brazil?" Bella asked, not getting it. Charoum put his arm around Bella's shoulder.

"Well, my dear, Brazil has garnered a certain reputation regarding drug cartels and general violence, but I'm sure that it's all completely unwarranted, and we've got Sushi to protect us."

He was too busy paying attention to Bella to notice Shisui, who was on his otherside, move so he could punch the older vampire properly.

"Ow!" he howled, clutching his jaw.

"You can't say I didn't warn you," Shisui told him. "And the reputation is entirely warranted, it's even less safe for women."

"Oh."

"Killjoy," Char muttered, still rubbing his jaw. "But it doesn't matter because I've made up my mind, that's where we're going, so there." He stuck out his tongue as if that would prove his point.

Shisui raised an eyebrow. "You really think I couldn't drag you off of this boat if I really wanted to?"

"I'll scream rape?"

"Right, because people will really believe that _I'm_ the one trying to rape _you_, and not the other way around."

"Well if you really want me to..." Charoum grinned suggestively.

For an answer, Shisui shoved Charoum over the railing.

"Shisui!" Bella said in a disapproving tone. "Man overboard! Someone help him!"

"See? Bella loves me!" Charoum yelled.

"Somehow, I doubt that," Shisui replied, and walked away from the edge of the boat to sit down on a bench more towards the middle. Bella stayed where she was to make sure that Charoum was fished out alright.


	11. Char Wasn't Meant to be a Travel Agent

"Su-"

"Shut up, Charoum," Shisui growled.

"But I'm..."

"Char." Shisui was giving him that look, the one that meant he was seriously pissed off and not in the mood. He should be focusing on the fact that Bella wanted to suck the blood of the humans that had taken them hostage so badly that she was shaking. She was fine when she was only around humans for a short time, but apparently she had reached her limit.

"Keep it down back there!" a foreign voice yelled. It was heavily accented, and sounded gruff and mean.

They were somewhere in South America, in the back of an armored truck, held captive. The people driving most likely intended to demand ransom, and if that didn't work, kill them. This was, of course, Charoum's fault. It seemed that he had forgotten about an incident involving these very people when he was here last time.

Luckily, none of them were able to place his face, or they probably would have been shot by now.

Shisui pushed the thoughts of killing Charoum out of his mind while he tried to figure out a way to get them out of this. The best he could come up with was to attempt to catch them by surprise when they tried to get them out of the truck. They wouldn't be expecting him to have gotten out of the ropes they had tied him up with, at least he hoped. He was already nervous about them having guns, and he was downright terrified that they would be shot during their break for freedom.

Luckily, it was night when the truck finally stopped, so they didn't have to worry about Char bursting into flames. Bella had, against all odds, fallen asleep on Charoum's shoulder and Shisui was lightly dozing when the doors were flung open and the three of them were dragged out of the truck and onto the ground.

Terror seized Shisui for just a fraction of a second before he grabbed the nearest gun and used it to take out the man holding it. Before the two others even realized what was going on, he had roundhouse kicked another one and he took the gun.

"Put the guns down, or I shoot the girl," the only armed human demanded. His weapon was trained on Bella, who looked terrified.

Charoum put his hands up placatingly. "Can't we just talk this out?" he asked.

Shisui's hands shot with the andrenaline coursing through his body, though fear was definitely playing its role."Shut up, Char!" he snarled. "Drop the weapon, or I shoot both of you."

The man smirked. "You wouldn't d-"

A bullet barely missed his leg by inches. "Try me."

The man's eyes widened, this kid was serious, and he had never been held at gun point like this before. Sure, he had been involved in shoot outs, but he had always had a decent chance of making it out alive. "Look, kid..."

Whatever else he was going to say was cut off when something darted out of the trees in an impossibly movement. He barely had time to scream before he was dead, and his partner met the same fate very, very shortly.

Shisui lowered the guns, and looked at Charoum for direction. He was too busy trying to get Bella not to try and suck the still warm blood of the dead men.

"I heard a gun go off, are any of you hurt?"

The man had dark features that suggested that he was native to this area, but there was something odd about his smell. After a few seconds of trying to place it, he realized that he smelled like the Cullens, kind of. He also had traces of human in his scent. His companion, a woman with similar enough features to be related to him, smelled all vampire.

"No, and thank you," Shisui said. "I'm Shisui, by the way, and that's Charoum and Bella."

"I'm Nahuel and that's Huilen, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Under the circumstances, it certainly is," Charoum said with a charming smile. Now that the blood had cooled, Bella had regained some semblance of control. "You wouldn't happen to be interested in helping us get to the next town thing, would you?"

"We can give you directions, if you want," the woman offered. "But we don't have a vehicle."

Charoum searched the pockets of the dead men and found some keys. He held them up. "I think that one will work perfectly fine."

They reached the next town thing without incident, and as soon as they got there, Nahuel and Huilen disappeared. Shisui punched Charoum in the arm as hard as he possibly could.

"Ow! What was that for?" Charoum whined, rubbing his arm. Shisui could punch _hard_.

"That's for not listening to me in the first place!" he exclaimed angrily. "And if you _ever_ do something like that to us again _I will kill you_."

Charoum smiled, though it wasn't as wide and jovial as it usually was. He was actually a little scared. "I won't," he promised.


	12. I Wouldn't Recomend Dying

Charoum lies. Frequently. Shisui hadn't forgotten, but he had thought that he had put enough fear into the guy to get him to at least think about what he was going to drag them into before that happened.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't Charoum's fault that Shisui was in unbearable agony in a deserted alleyway. He hadn't realized that the guy he was intending on making his next meal had a knife, and apparently didn't mess around. He had stabbed Shisui in the stomach, and as a result he was slowly bleeding to death.

It wasn't pleasant, to say the least. His insides were on fire, and each breath was like swallowing burning coals, or possibly liquid electricity. He did his breath to focus on pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and call Charoum. A part of him realized that if he was here in the morning, he would really die.

"Yo!"

"Char," Shisui wheezed. Breathing was simply just too painful.

"Are you ok?" Charoum asked, suddenly concerned.

Instead of giving him a real answer, Shisui managed to spit out an address. Charoum showed up not five minutes later, picked him up as gently as possible, and took him to the hospital. Shisui's face was contorted into a grimace, and he was crying from the pain.

"Just hang in there, Sushi. We'll be in the hospital real soon."

Shisui made a kind of groaning whimpering noise in response. Had the twenty year old vampire not been in so much pain, he might have been embarrassed by the noise, but he was more concerned with the fact that his stomach was on fire, and the fire was catching rather easily.

By the time Charoum had gotten him to the hospital, he had passed out. Charoum watched worriedly as he was rushed to the E.R. for immediate attention.

"Char, what happened?"

Bella arrived not five minutes after Charoum had texted her, telling her to meet him at the hospital. Upon seeing his expression, she was filled with dread. Something really awful must have happened.

"Sushi got stabbed," Char told her. "He's in the E.R. right now, but he lost so much blood before I could get him here..."

"Is he going to be ok?" she asked. She was genuinely concerned for Shisui, in the five years that she had known him, he had sort of become like a brother.

"I don't know." He looked at the doors where Shisui had been taken worriedly. "Bella, I don't know what I would do if he didn't..." Charoum couldn't bring himself to say the words. Shisui hadn't been with him all that long considering that Char was immortal, but ten years was still a long time, and Charoum had grown attached to him.

Bella hugged him. "He's going to be fine," she said. "This is Shisui we're talking about, he's not going to let something like a knife wound kill him."

The next hour was tense, to say the least. The two of them sat in the waiting room, and normally the smell of blood would have driven them crazy, but they were too worried about Shisui to really care.

"Charoum?"

In his haste to get Shisui taken care of, he hadn't bothered to come up with a fake name. He looked up to see a very familiar face.

"Carlisle?"

Bella put the name to the face quicker than Charoum was able to. She jumped up and hugged him tightly. Carlisle patted her back a little hesitantly.

"Is he ok?" Charoum asked.

"I'm sorry. We did everything we could, but..."

Charoum just nodded. As silly as it sounded, he wasn't really concerned with the prospect of Shisui's death. He was concerned that Shisui might try to leave now that he was a "proper" vampire, and he really, really didn't want that to happen.

"Do you think you could help us get him out of the morgue?" Charoum asked. He was nervous, and it showed.

Carlisle looked confused. "Why?"

"Because once a living dead vampire dies, they turn into an undead vampire, and I'd prefer for him not to wake up in the morgue," Charoum explained.

At that explanation, Bella's expression turned from being unbearably sad to as livid as she could manage.

"I hate you!" she yelled, and then stormed off for fear of blurting something out that humans weren't supposed to know.

Carlisle and Charoum watched as she stormed out of the hospital in a tempest of emotion.

"What is she doing here?" Carlisle asked once she had disappeared. It was obvious from his tone that he already knew, but he didn't seem particularly angry about it.

Charoum rubbed the back of his neck. "I may have turned her," he answered, and searched his expression for any hint that he was angry.

"I see," Carlisle said, still not displaying a hint of anger. "Is she living dead or undead?"

"Living, somehow Sushi's managed to protect her from both herself and anything that might try to kill her. It's pretty amazing, actually."

"I'm sure," Carlisle said. Given Bella's luck and clumsiness, it really was quite the feat. "Is she happy?"

"For the most part, I think so. I mean, she hasn't tried to leave or anything like that."

"Good. I must admit that I was worried that she would be miserable after Edward left, but it seems that she might have moved on, at least a little. Would you mind coming over to discuss this further at my house? Esme's been wanting some company ever since Edward, Jasper, and Alice left."

"I don't think tonight will be good, but why don't you give me your number and I'll give you a call?"

Carlisle smiled. "That works." He wrote down the number legibly, depsite the fact that he was a doctor. Charoum put it in his pocket. "I hate to cut this short, but I really need to get back to work."

Charoum nodded. "We can talk more later."

Bella rounded on him as soon as she noticed that he had come out of the hospital. It was plain to see that she was still furious.

"How could you not tell me that he was going to be fine?" she demanded. "I thought he was really going to die!"

"Sorry! I thought you knew! Don't hit me!"

Bella lowered her half raised hand; she hadn't even realized that she was about to slap him.

"I thought we were going to lose him!"

"Bella, I'm worried that he might try and leave now that he's a proper vampire."

"Does that... does that happen a lot?" she asked in a small voice.

"From what I've heard, it's fairly common, yeah."

"He's like a brother to me, he can't leave!" Bella protested. She started crying again,

Charoum was regretting telling her that. While it was true, she was going through an emotional roller coaster and he was just making things harder for her.

"Then that means that you're not going to try and ditch me for Carlisle?" he asked, because he was worried about that too now.

"They left without even saying goodbye, Char, and you two are my family now."

Char let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Whew, and I here I thought you would be trying to get away from me the first chance you got."

"Somehow I get the feeling that I wouldn't be able to get rid of you that easily."

"Of course not, you're stuck with me whether you like it or not."


	13. The Dangers of Sunlight

**AN: This is another short-ish one, and I'm not entirely certain that I'm happy with it, but I'm too lazy to puzzle over their conversation anymore so here it is.**

It quickly became apparent that Alice didn't take into consideration the dangers of sunlight when she burst into the apartment around noon the following day. Luckily, instead of breaking down the door, she simply picked the lock, but Charoum was still in the living room and let out a shriek when his skin caught on fire.

Luckily, Jasper had the good sense to shut the door and dash into the kitchen to find the fire extinquisher to put the vampire out.

"Ever heard of knocking!" Charoum yelled, nursing his burnt arm. He looked marginally disgusted when the foam from the extinguisher got in his mouth.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Alice said frantically. "Are you ok?"

"I'll survive," Charoum grumbled, and went into the kitchen to douse the wound in cold water. He hissed when it hit his skin. "There should be some burn cream in my backpack, grab it for me?"

"What's burning?" Bella asked, yawning. Somewhere along the lines, her sleeping schedule had flipped, and she usually slept during the day.

"Bella!" Alice exclaimed, and wrapped her arms around the vampire.

"Alice?"

"Hello! My arm was recently on fire!"

"Drama queen," Bella grumbled, and detatched herself from Alice so she could find the cream. She was going to smear it on Charoum's burn when she saw that the skin had actually blackened. She had burned herself before, but never that badly.

"Would someone go find Carlisle?" she asked, unsure how to treat the wound. She was pretty sure Shisui would, but he was rather indisposed at the moment.

"I'll go," Jasper offered, knowing that Alice would want to stay with Bella, and things were too emotionally hectic anyway. By the time he got back, hopefully things would have calmed down.

"Go ahead and invite everyone over, we'll have a party," Charoum said.

Jasper raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. He just left the apartment.

"I love him," Charoum said.

"He's not into guys, and he loves Alice too much. Besides, you're annoying," Bella informed him.

Charoum sighed. "I know," he said, and then smiled. "But you love me for it."

"Bella?" Alice looked confused. Really, really confused.

"I am not in love with him! Ew!"

Charoum smirked. "That's not what you said last... ow!"

"You're disgusting!"

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to hurt someone who's already injured?" Charoum asked.

"You don't count."

Alice giggled at their banter, it was obvious that this happened fairly often.

"Women," Charoum muttered and shook his head.

Before either Alice or Bella had the chance to reply, there was a knock at the door. Charoum retreated further into the kitchen so Bella could let Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmett, Esme, and Jasper in.

"Close the door, please," Charoum requested. There was a patch of sunlight a bit too close to his toe for comfort.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"It must be awfully inconvient to catch on fire just from sunlight," Esme said.

"This doesn't happen often," Char replied, wincing as Carlisle smeared some cream on the burn and wrapped gauze around it.

"Somehow, I doubt that," Jasper said.

"Jasper!" Esme chided.

"Not half as often as you sparkle," Charoum teased back.

"Being indestructible makes up for it."

"Pixie."

"I drink blood, idiot."

"Animal blood," Charoum pointed out. "And real vampires need human blood to survive," he said smugly.

"Are you calling us pixies?" Emmett asked

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth."

"I hate to say it... but I think I agree with Charoum on this one," Bella said.

"Hah!" Charoum stuck his tongue out at them in a decidedly childish manner.

"Sure, pixies that can still kick your ass," Emmett said, cracking his knuckles.

"Emmett! Language!" Esme chided.

"What was that about beating me up?"

"Please, Esme? Just one hit, he'll be fine."

"Emmett, I need him," Bella pointed out.

"For what?"

"Emmett has a point, I know a lot about your type of vampire having spent a few months with Charoum," Jasper said.

Bella bit her lip, unsure what to say. She looked at Charoum for his reaction.

"If it's really what you want, Bella. Sushi and I will miss you, but if it makes you happy..."  
>"Oh for heaven's sake, why can't the three of you join our coven?" Rosalie asked. "It's not as if Edward's here to make things difficult."<p>

"Why don't we try it for a few weeks, and see how it goes? As long as Bella's cool with it, of course," he added.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Bella agreed.


	14. Thinking About Bella, Again

Edward was thinking about Bella, again. He was under some kind of shack that had been abandoned long ago and had remained there, leaving only to occasionally hunt. Not that it mattered, because nothing really mattered without her. It wasn't even possible to begin contemplating trying to live some semblance of a life when she wasn't there.

Hence the reason he had shoved himself under the abandoned shack, and was kind of annoyed when he heard the thoughts of two people near him. A few seconds of listening later, though that really wasn't intentional, he found out that they were vampires. Well, one of them was a vampire, the other was half human.

He also learned that they had recently saved Shisui, Bella, and Charoum from a group of men with guns. That caught his attention like nothing else would, and he wriggled out from under the shack. This had happened a few months ago, but it didn't matter. He had to know what Bella was doing with those two, here, no less. He pulled out his cell phone, the others would want to know about this and help him find them...

It was dead. Of course. Edward crushed the useless piece of technology in his fist, grinding it into a fine powder, and rushed off to find the nearest pay phone.

It turned out that he was in an area that wasn't equipped with pay phones and he didn't particularily want to ask one of the people there if he could borrow theirs, so he continued searching. And eventually he found one, a few hours later. All that he needed now was some change...

Obviously, there was someone conspiring against him, because his pockets were empty. He very nearly cursed, but thought better of it, and decided to find some change instead.

Eventually, he found the recquired amount and slipped it into the machine before dialing Alice's number.

"Hello?"

"Alice, it's Edward."

"Oh. Hi, Edward."

He wondered why she didn't seem particularily happy to hear from him, or perhaps it was something else, but then brushed it aside.

"Look, I need you to help me find Bella. I overheard some thoughts about her traveling with Charoum and Shisui, which is completely unacceptable, and I need to find them."

"Edward, it's ok. She's fine, I promise..."

He barely restrained himself from hitting the side of the booth. "No, she's not! Not if she's with..."

"Me?" Charoum's voice finished.

Edward blinked, not having expected that. "What have you done with Bella?"

"I turned her into a vampire. Do you have any idea how idiotic and irresponsible it was to leave her as a human after she knew what you were?"

"I'm going to kill you," Edward growled lowly.

"I'd like to see you try," Charoum replied, using a tone that implied that he didn't care. "But I'm not on the phone with you to listen to you threaten me. I wanted to let you know that neither Sushi nor I intend to let you mess Bella up like you did the first time you left, so if you want to come back, call first so she can decide whether she wants to be there or not."

That... stung. He hadn't really thought about it before, but there was a possiblity that she wouldn't want to see him again. Of course, he knew that she might have gotten over him, he hoped not and at the same time he hoped that she had, but not wanting to see him at all?

"Will... will you ask her for me?" Edward asked hesitantly, positive that it wasn't a good idea to ask Charoum specifically to do it.

There was silence for a few seconds while Charoum formulated a response. "I'll ask her, it's not like I'd keep something like this from her anyway. We're back in Forks, currently, if you're curious."

Then he hung up the phone. Edward replaced his own, and began calculating the fastest way to get there.

Meanwhile, Charoum was trying to figure out how to tell Bella about this. She was still recovering from getting back in touch with her father, who was understandably mad that she had left like that but happy that she was happy again. She also had a budding relationship with a werewolf that had no idea that she was a vampire, and she had no clue that he was a werewolf.

To be fair, Charoum had only figured it out earlier that day. And the rest of the Cullens had no clue. Bella visited on occasion, but it wasn't like she came over every day and he had yet to transform into a wolf.

He didn't even want to know how the rest of the Cullens would react to the knowledge, but it was healthy for her to be in a relationship because she hadn't even thought of it since Edward.

Charoum knew there was a good reason why he avoided high school drama like the plague, because it only got worse when vampires and werewolves were tossed into the mix.

"What now?" Shisui asked, closing his book.

"Edward wants to see Bella," Char told him.

"Of course," Shisui sighed.

"Yeah, so put on your shoes."

"Why?"

"Because we need to tell Bella, duh. Are you coming or not?"

"Just a second," Shisui told him. He slipped some shoes on and they both left the house. It was around eight in the evening, so the sun was already down.

"Glenn?"

"Mike, it's been a while."

"Yeah..." The boy looked confused. "What are you doing here? And why aren't you in school?"

"We've decided to try homeschooling," Charoum provided.

"Oh. Is it because of Cullen? Because he's gone now. The rest of his family came back, but not him, which is kind of weird."

"No, it takes a little more than that to scare me off," Shisui replied.

"Oh. Well, me and Jessica and Ben and Angela and them are going to see that new movie, The Last Redemption, on Wednesday, and you're welcome to come."

"Yeah, that sounds good," Shisui replied.

"As much as I hate to cut this conversation short, Glenn and I do have somewhere that we're supposed to be," Char said. "It was nice meeting you, Mike."

"Er, it was nice meeting you too..."

"James," Charoum supplied.

"Right. See you, Glenn."  
>"What happened to being Lestat Coilnourt?" Shisui asked when Mike was some distance away.<p>

"If I remember correctly, he died a while ago," Charoum replied. "You want to go first?" he asked, gesturing to the tree outside of Bella's window. The two had opted not to wake up her father and explain why they were there in the middle of the night, and climbing up to her window had proved to be a decent alternative.

Shisui climbed the tree in no time and tapped on the window so Bella would know that they were there. They had been invited in before, so that wasn't a problem. The problem was that Bella was tired since she was sleeping at night again.

"What do you want?" she yawned.

"Bella, this is actually important. You need to wake up," Charoum told her.

"I am awake." She glared at him.

"How would you feel about seeing Edward again?" he asked.

"... What?"

"I told you to wake up. Edward Cullen, he wants to see you again," Charoum repeated.

Bella plopped down on her bed. "Why?"

"He didn't say, but you don't have to talk to him if you don't want to."

"I do," she sighed. "I have to eventually anyway. When is he going to be here?"

Charoum shrugged. "I'm not sure, but probably some time within this week. You sure you're ok with this?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Now get out so I can sleep."


	15. In Which a Werewolf is Kidnapped

"Are you sure that this is such a good idea, Shisui? I mean, I was kind of rude to them before..." Bella said.

"They wouldn't have invited you if it wasn't," Shisui reminded her.

"Technically it was only Angela..."

"Are you going to get in the truck, or am I going to have to tie you up and put you in the back?" he asked seriously. Charoum was out doing whatever, so Bella was driving them to meet the others at the movies, but apparently she was having second thoughts.

"Do you even know how to drive?" she asked.

"Charoum taught me."

Bella all but jumped into the driver's side. Charoum had the tendency to ignore most traffic laws, and she really, really didn't trust that he had taught all of them to Shisui. It was highly unlikely, but him tying her up and throwing her in the back of the truck had a decent chance of happening.

Apparently satisfied, Shisui got in as well.

"You really think I can't drive? That hurts, Bella. I grew up in Detroit, cars are in my blood."

"You're Japanese, Shisui," she reminded him. "And just because you grew up in Detroit doesn't mean you can drive. Besides, it doesn't help when you sound like Charoum."

"Fine, but I do know how to actually drive. It isn't possible to live with Charoum for as long as I have and not know how."

"Just because you know how to drive doesn't mean that you can drive _well, _because we've both seen how Charoum drives."

"True, but that doesn't mean that I don't obey the laws of traffic."

"My dad is a cop, somehow I don't think that you'd drive to my standards."

"Good luck finding someone who does, then."

"And that's why no one besides me is allowed to drive my truck."

"Realistically, Bella, if I needed to drive your truck, you would let me."

"Only in your dreams."

"First of all, if I'm going to be dreaming about driving, this dinosaur isn't going to be involved..."

"This truck is old enough to be your grandfather, have some respect."

"...and secondly, if it had been there during the incident in Russia, we both know that you would have let me drive it, because both you and Charoum were in handcuffs."

"You really want to walk, don't you?"

"I'll be late and you'll have to explain to Mike and them why."

"It really was such a shame that you couldn't make it after all because you got grounded..."

"You do realize that I'm going to have to meet Jacob at some point and that I have quite a few interesting stories to tell, right?"

"You wouldn't dare."

Shisui smirked. "Try me."

The bickering continued until eventually they made it to the movie theatre. Bella threw the truck into park angrily, mostly because she was losing the argument.

"I'm serious, if you even think about it..."

"Relax, I won't." Conversation had drifted back to what stories Shisui would tell Jacob, and Bella seemed to relax a little. If he said that he wouldn't, she knew that he wouldn't.

"Bella, who is that?" Jacob asked when he saw Shisui.

"I'm Glenn."

Jacob squeezed his hand extra hard when he shook Shisui's hand, but the vampire didn't seem to mind. In fact, Jacob was the one who had to shake out his hand when they let go.

"It's good to see that you made it, everyone else had to cancel," Mike said.

"That's unfortunate," Shisui said, frowning. "So it's just us, then?"

"Yep."

"This is going to be fun," Shisui muttered under his breath as they went in.

Once they got into the theatre, Bella decided that she wanted to sit next to Shisui, leaving only one side open. Jacob claimed it, much to Mike's dismay, so he sat next to Shisui, glaring at Jacob while he did. Jacob didn't seem to notice.

"So, how long have you known Bella?" Jacob asked Shisui.

"Long enough," Shisui replied vaguely. "You?"

"We've known each other since we were toddlers," Jacob told him. "Bella used to come down every summer and we'd hang out."

"So she told me," Shisui replied.

The lights went down and the movie started shortly. It turned out to be filled with blood and gore, which usually would have made Bella turn a little green, but that was before she had become a vampire. Now she was amused by the effects they used, particularly any involving fake blood. It seemed that they had doubled the amount humans normally had, and she whispered this to Shisui because she knew that he had noticed the same. Of course, this resulted in a hushed conversation because the movie looked to be just mindless violence anyway.

"I'll be right back," Jacob said suddenly. He got up and all but ran out of the room.

"I'll make sure he's ok." Shisui got up as well, and Mike took his spot.

"I guess he just doesn't have a stomach for this stuff, huh?" he asked her in a whisper.

That was plausible, but Bella didn't really think that was it. Sure, the movie was filled with gruesome scenes, but she didn't think Jacob would have that much of a reaction to it. In fact, if she remembered correctly, he just laughed at it when they were younger.

"You should go home, you're sick," Shisui said when Jacob was finished emptying his stomach. He was standing in between two mirrors so there wouldn't be so much of a chance of Jacob noticing that he didn't have a reflection.

"And leave Bella to you and Newton? No thanks."

"I'm sure she'll be so impressed by your lack of health," Shisui said sarcastically.

"Better than having you two with her alone."

"I'm not interested in her like that, and you'll get her sick."

"Oh. I thought..."

Shisui shook his head. "Bella's like a little sister to me, and you're not going to impress her by getting her sick. Come on, let's go."

"Is everything alright?" Bella asked.

"He's sick," Shisui told her.

"Do you want me to drive you home?" she asked Jacob. "You really don't look so good."

"Yeah, that would probably be best," Jacob conceded.

"Keys, Bella," Shisui said, holding out his hand for them. "I'll follow you guys."

Bella's mouth fell open. "You planned this, didn't you?" she accused.

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, Bella. I admit it, I got Jacob sick and then mind controlled you into asking him if he wanted a ride home. You caught me. Now give me the keys unless you want me to drive him instead, and you can follow me in your truck."

Bella hesitated, then gave him the keys. "If you wreck it, I will find a way to get back at you," she promised.

"I'm terrified. Really."

"Is he always like that?" Jacob asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," she replied. She got into the driver's side of the Rabbit and put the keys in the ignition.

"Why do you hang out with him, anyway? I heard that he was only here for a week or two before he disappeared at the same time you did," Jacob said, frowning.

"It's complicated," Bella told him. "And before you ask, no, he didn't kidnap me."

"Is he blackmailing you or something, Bella? I need you to be honest with me," he said seriously.

Bella started laughing. "No, of course not," she said. "Jeez, relax, will you? It's not a big deal, he's just a really close friend."

"I don't like him."

"I'm not asking you to, but he's not going away."

Jacob frowned even deeper and leaned his head against the glass window. He really got a bad feeling about Glenn, but of course Bella wouldn't pick up on it. She didn't have the danger radar that most people seemed to have, but he didn't see how he could protect her on this one. Unless... Charlie probably didn't like him too much, and he could keep Glenn away from Bella. Jacob decided that he would say something just as soon as he got over whatever was making him feel sick.

Bella pulled up to his house and parked the car, handing Jacob back his keys.

"I hope you feel better," she told him. "Call me?"

"Yeah." He glared at Glenn, who was waiting patiently in Bella's truck, and wished that he could kiss her cheek and show him that he was going to be with Bella, regardless of whether the other boy liked it or not. He didn't, though, because he didn't want to risk her getting sick. Instead, he went inside.

"Get out of my truck," Bella demanded once Jacob was safely inside.

"No, I think I'll take advantage of the fact that I both have the keys and am already sitting in the driver's side. Besides, I need to prove to you that I am capable of obeying the laws of traffic."

"You're insufferable," she grumbled as she stomped over to the passenger side and got in.

"What, you're not going to throw a real tantrum and slam the door?"

"I hate you," she grumbled.

"In that case, maybe I should have done something to your car."

"Truck," she corrected.

"Whatever."

"Calling my truck a car is about as offensive as Char calling you Sushi."

"Noted."

"So, um, what did you think about Jacob?" she asked a little hesitantly.

"I'm not going to kill him because I'm dismissing his behavior as a result of his illness and perceived competition."

"What did he do?" she asked frowning. "Because normally Jacob's really sweet and fun to be around."

"Nothing really, he just thinks that I'm competition and acted accordingly."

"Oh."

"What makes you think something happened?"

"He doesn't like you. At all. Normally Jake isn't like that, and he asked if you were black mailing me or something, so I thought you might have said something..."

"No, I was too busy trying to convince him that Mike and I weren't going to rape you as soon as he turned his back. When are you planning on introducing him to Charoum?"

"I um, wasn't really..."

Shisui gave her a look. "You do realize that the alternative is Charoum introducing himself, and that can only end is disaster, right?"

"Yeah, but..."

"We're kidnapping him tomorrow," Shisui interrupted. "Provided that the weather is willing and he isn't feeling too horrible, of course," he added almost as an afterthought. "You can be in charge of transportation and seeing if he's doing well enough to be kidnapped and Char can figure out something that we can do."

"What about you?"

"Someone has to force him into the car."

"Good luck with that," Bella muttered.

The next afternoon, Bella picked up Shisui and Charoum before driving over to Jake's house to pick him up. Charoum sat in the back of the truck, despite numerous complaints. They waited patiently for Bella to give the signal, but instead she argued with Billy before walking back to the truck.

"He says that Jake's still really sick, and that he's going to be sick for a while," she said. In all honesty, she was a little glad of this. She hadn't really been looking forward to Char meeting him because what if Jake didn't like him, either?

"We'll check on him in a week," Char decided. He felt that he was being generous in giving the werewolf that long, if it had been a vampire he would have only waited until they were physically capable before kidnapping them.

A week passed with no sign of Edward Cullen, which Charoum decided was a good thing, so they went to kidnap Jake as planned. Like before, they drove up and Bella went to knock, and Billy turned her away. Unlike last time, Charoum decided to get out and talk to him. He argued with Billy for a few minutes in the doorway before the older man let him in. The door shut behind them.

"I wonder what they're talking about," Bella said out loud.

Shisui shrugged. "I wouldn't know, your guess is as good as mine."

They waited for a good fifteen minutes before Charoum came back out. He climbed into the back of the truck with Bella and Shisui.

"He's not home, but I convinced Billy to let us kidnap him when he gets back."

They wound up having to wait for about an hour before Jacob came back. He noticed the red truck immediately and started walking to it, saying something to his group of friends first. They backed off into the forest before leaving entirely.

"What are you doing here?" he asked mostly Bella, approaching the driverside window where she was sitting.

"Waiting for you, of course," she replied as she turned the key to start the truck.

"Well don't," he told her with a cold voice, not noticing Shisui sneak up behind him. "I can't be friends with you anymore."

That was as far as he got in the speech he had rehearsed before Shisui attacked him and somehow managed to get Jacob into the back of the truck. It was hard considering that Jacob was much taller than he was and he wasn't exactly weak, either, but he lacked the training that Shisui had and he wasn't quite as strong.

"What are you doing?" he growled. Shisui was sitting on him in the bed of the truck to prevent escape, and Jacob was annoyed that he was both being kidnapped and his face was being squished against the truck bed.

"Kidnapping you," Shisui answered honestly. He was waiting until they picked up speed to let Jacob up so there wouldn't be the chance of him jumping out of the truck.

"You're going to regret this," Jacob growled.

"I'm sure," Shisui replied. They were on the highway now, and they were going too fast for Jacob to attempt to jump out of the truck so he got off of the other boy.

Jacob attempted to punch him the first chance he got.

"You're really going to try and pick a fight in the back of a truck?" Shisui asked him, strangely liking the idea. This was the sort of thing that you would find in an action movie, not real life, but lately his life seemed like an action movie.

In an answer, Jacob lunged at him again, but Shisui kicked him off carefully. He didn't want to accidentally send him flying out of the truck, after all.

"Why are you doing this?" Jacob demanded. He was gripping the edge of the truck bed, he seemed to have realized that fighting in the back was a bad idea.

"Because you need to meet Jason." It felt weird calling Char that.

"So you kidnap me?"

"Yes, well, apparently you hate me so we didn't think you'd agree to do this willingly," he explained.

"And you wonder why..."

"I can see why Jason normally doesn't like werewolves," Shisui remarked.

Jacob narrowed his eyes. "How did you know about that?"

"It's a long story," Shisui replied vaguely. "And before you ask, Bella doesn't know. Jason and I are the only ones that do."

"So you know that I'm dangerous."

"If I really thought that you were dangerous, do you think I would have attempted to kidnap you?"

"You don't understand, I could lose control and kill you. All of you."

Shisui rolled his eyes at Jacob's dramatics. "If you're trying to get yourself out of this, it's not working."

"Where are we going, anyway?" Jacob asked.

"I wouldn't know, Jason said he wanted it to be a surprise." Shisui didn't even want to think about what the implied, but he trusted Char. Kind of.

"You're kidding me," Bella said as she got out of the truck. "I wanted you to meet him, not kill him."

"You're not going to let a little water kill you, are you Jacob?" Char asked the boy.

"You worry too much, Bells," Jacob told her, smiling. In truth, he was a little intimidated by the prospect of white water rafting. He had never done it before, but then again, how hard could it be?


End file.
